Traditional third party coupon/rewards redemption systems such as, Groupon, In Living Social, and other systems, are separated from the payment applications at the Point-of-Sale (POS) device. Coupons offered by these systems are often entered manually. This makes it difficult for merchants to redeem such coupons or rewards and harder to track customer data and usage by both the merchant and the coupon provider. The identity of the user of the coupon is not tied to the individual's payment data, nor is it obtained at all in many cases, making it difficult for the merchant to track their customers' habits and promote to them directly in the future.
A real time integrated payment and third party coupon/rewards redemption system would be desirable in order to enable third parties to drive traffic to merchants while being tied to the POS systems of the existing merchants. This system would ease the checkout process for consumers and merchants, reduce fraud, and provide customer buying preferences to the merchants for future promotions.